If Only
by aliensister
Summary: Wyatt Cain needs to learn to never listen to rumors, especially where his princess is concerned. One Shot. Short and Sweet.


He felt like a dirty old man. She was only a few annuals older then his own son, but he couldn't stop watching her. And it didn't help that he had been assigned as her personal bodyguard. The Queen and her consort had decided their youngest daughter needed someone who could keep up with her spontaneous, some would say defiant, attitude to life. They had asked him and he had said yes, not being able to say no to his queen, more then that, he'd been unable to say no to the thought of spending his days with DG.

He'd had no idea of the mental anguish it would cause him; he was too old, too damaged for her to even see him that way. Still, every time she hugged him he had to bite his cheek to stop himself from pressing his lips against hers till she begged for breath. He held back, because she was a young princess who deserved more then an old tin man who was filled to the brim with baggage. A widower with a teenage son; whom he had only just started to have a good relationship with. He had been in torment for just over an annual when things had started to change. DG no longer called him 'Mister' or 'Mr Cain' or even 'Cain'.  
No, now she called him Wyatt. And she had gone to her mother, putting a stop to the droves of suitors that had been paraded through the castle for her inspection.

He had asked DG how she had managed to get her mother to agree to stop the suitors, under the guise of needing to know as her bodyguard, but she'd simply told him that she had no need for them. At first he had assumed she was being rebellious and he'd kept his mouth closed because she seemed happier. He also figured that, when the time was right, the Queen would resume looking for the future husband of her youngest daughter. But then the rumours had started making their rounds through the castle. Wyatt Cain had always made it a point to not put stock in ridiculous rumours, though he always listened. It was part of his tin man training; it was what made him a good cop. Then he'd heard the same rumours from the eldest princess: DG had chosen her future husband.

Cain was confused and angry and slightly hurt, but he buried that emotion. Because she did deserve a man who would take care of her and be an excellent husband and father to their children. So he had focused on the anger. He was her bodyguard, he had a duty to protect her and somehow he had failed her. And she had defied him, sneaking out to meet her boyfriend/fiancée. Wyatt Cain could admit that he, like any other man, could some times let his pride rule his thoughts but this was not one of those moments, he was sure. He'd failed as a bodyguard and thus, his only course of action was step down as her bodyguard and let someone younger, who would be able to keep up with her sneaking around, take over. He was too old to do this job anymore obviously; he had tried watching DG constantly. He hadn't managed to catch her sneaking out but he knew she was somehow seeing her mysterious man because every morning she gave him a smile that screamed of a woman in love.

So he had spoken to the Queen and informed her of his decision to step down. Her only response had been that he needed to tell DG, and that had brought him to this moment. Cain walked past his stand-in, soon to be head bodyguard for DG's princess detail, giving him a curt nod as he headed into the gardens. The two princesses' had turned it into their own private oasis, filled with luscious fruit trees and flowers that gave of the sweetest aromas all day long and late into the hot summer nights. He found DG sitting on the stone steps of the pergola that she had asked him to help her build when she had decided to transform the garden.

He forced a swallow past the lump in his throat as he stopped a few feet in front of his princess. He watched as she stared off into  
garden, eating a large piece of fruit, which DG had told him was from the other side, called a Peach. He watched as she raised the fruit to her lips and sunk her teeth into its flesh. His hands clenched into fists as he saw the juices run down her chin and Ozma how he wanted to be the one to lick it off her.

"Wyatt! Hi, I was wondering when you would come back… your shadow isn't half as fun to talk to." DG said, as he handed her his handkerchief from his pocket after watching her wipe the juices from her chin with the back of hand.

"Very princess like, DG," He smirked as she laughed and he tried desperately to ignore the way her laughter always made his heart feel like it was beating again after so long.

"I know, right?" DG laughed, patting the step besides her asking him to join her, which he did with a sigh. At her inquisitive look he took a deep breath and bolstered his confidence to tell the woman he had mistakenly fallen in love with why he had sought her out.

"I'm leaving, DG." Cain's heart seemed to crumple as he watched DG's face and the intense array of emotions. Confusion, anger, hurt and sorrow were all there but anger was the one she decided to act on. She jumped up from the step, furious, placing her hand on her hips as she stared down at him.

"Why?" Her voice seemed deadly calm and Cain frowned, following her to stand up, feeling defensive.

"I don't have to explain myself to you, DG, but it's time." He said his tone copying DG's own calm but his eyes widening as DG swore.

"Bullshit!" It wasn't that he had never heard her swore before but he could count them all on one hand. And it took usually the most extreme situations for her to do it, so that she would lose it over something so small as him leaving, shocked him.

"No, that's bogus, Wyatt Cain, you tell me the truth…" Cain watched as her anger seemed to fizzle out, her face falling, turning to sadness, it seemed to cover her whole body.

"After everything we've been through, I thought... I thought I meant more to you then that…"

"You have a fiancée…" Cain almost spluttered, "I had to find out from gossiping women! I thought I meant more then that to you, DG. Not even to mention that you put yourself in danger by sneaking out on ME to see him."

"Fiancée? Sneaking out?" DG was looking at him silently bewildered, for a long minute before breaking out in laughter, making Cain furious. He shook his head and tried to walk past her and out of the gardens but her death grip on his arm stopped him. DG looked at him hopelessly as she continued to laugh.

"You know, for someone so smart, you can be awfully stupid, Wyatt." DG said, her laughter finally slowing enough for her to speak. She stepped in front of him.

"There is no fiancée, and I never snuck out of the palace… yes, there is a man I like, am in love with, but he is there when I wake up in the morning and is the last person I see at night." Her voice was soft but firm as she raised her hands to his cheeks.

"What the hell are you talking about DG?" Cain growled, his frustration obvious as his hands lifted to grab the ones DG had placed on his cheeks, pulling them away from his face down to in front of his chest.

"…But apparently he's as oblivious as Glitch when he's had his zipper open for too long." She huffed, grabbing his shirt as she lifted herself onto her tippy toes so that she could be eye to eye with him.

"You, Cain!" Cain's brow furrowed and he fought the urge to shake his head to try and clear his ears, because he was sure he had misheard her.

"Me?" His voice sounded confused but the confusion in his eyes was slowly lifting as DG's continued stare, and the love he could see in her eyes was directed at him.

"Yes, you…" DG said shaking her head at the man in front of her, her lips quirking into a smile as Cain stared at her wide eyed.

Her big blue eyes stared into Cain's and he wondered if the wild beating he could hear was his heart or hers. His hands let go of hers and reached around her, pulling her to his chest, trapping her hands between them as he finally succumbed to the urge that had been plaguing him for nearly two annuals. Wyatt Cain finally kissed his princess, his DG and he kissed her and continued to kiss her, only kissing her harder when she kissed him back. It wasn't until his chest screamed for air that he released his hold on the princess,

"Are you sure?" He asked with a frown, not able to believe that someone so young and happy could want someone so old and jaded. He watched as DG leaned back, his heart already panging as she tried to move away from him, his hands starting to loosen as she lifted a fist and let it fly at his shoulder. Cain barely got an outraged 'ow!' before DG's lips were back on his, kissing him as if her life depended on it.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure…" DG said and Cain decided not to look the gift horse in the mouth even if it went against everything he'd learned, DG was like that, she turned everything he knew on its head.

THE END


End file.
